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Blizzcon 2013 – The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Warcraft

As well as all the visuals revealed at Blizzcon 2013, the developers have also had a great amount of information to deliver about the sound and music in World of Warcraft. Some of it might seem incidental, but some of it is quite exciting.

Here’s what they’ve revealed.

First and foremost, Jason Hayes, the man behind most of the outdoors music throughout World of Warcraft, is making a return. If you like to play with the music turned on then you’ve heard his work, and will be hearing more as we traverse the world of Draenor.

Hunters have been taking the opportunity to transmogrify their guns into bows or crossbows since the feature was released, mainly because the gunshot sound effects are loud and, largely, quite irritating. Blizzard have identified this as a problem, and will be updating the sounds to try and curb this trend.

Hunters will be able to blast enemies in peace in WoD.

Blizzard are making a strive to make the incidental sounds throughout Warcraft a lot more realistic, and are working on expanding the repertoire of sounds available for different interactions. As an example, they have recorded real blacksmiths at work to use ingame, as well as recording real animals to use for the wildlife. There are also only six different sounds for footsteps across different surfaces in the game – that will increase with the release of Warlords of Draenor.

The new character models being introduced has also given the developers an opportunity to update the voices on your characters. New sound actors are being drafted in to record new voices and expand what is already there, so expect your character to sound just as great as he or she looks on release.

The sound department for World of Warcraft are working constantly for the new expansion, so this is unlikely to be the final release of updates – what would you like to see updated?